Friday, December 20, 2013

There was a small pod of tiare seeds of which I managed to get most before bird and other critters did. Unfortunately for whoever else is interested on of my long time repeat customers emailed me just that day, could she have 40, and then I looked at my rather short but quite deep waiting list, the first person, another long time repeat customer, wanted 200, counted what I had left and had 185, she got those. That was in mid November.

In the meantime I got one more pod. I'm still processing it but for the time being it's the last one I expect. While I do love my repeat wholesale customers I am going to give my online retail customers a chance this time. I know a lot of you are repeat customers too.

As clove seeds go, I still have some listed in my Artfire, Etsy and Zibbet shops and I just listed a package of 10 on Ebay as well. As the only other seller on Ebay is asking for $23 including shipping for 6 I didn't see going with the previous price for mine either - but it still is much lower. I do not know how many clove seeds I am going to have this time as it appears that our bees died. I am going to raise my wholesale and retail prices but I'm not going to where that other Ebay seller is.

Monday, November 18, 2013

It's a while since the clove seeds started, but they're still slow. If you're on the waiting list for larger orders, that may still be a while but I can accommodate a few small orders per week. Check my on-line shops :).

I have recently changed my policies to say that orders received before 7 a.m. will usually ship on the same day rather than 8 a.m. as it used to say. This is because on some days I have to be at work earlier, and if I start packing an order at 8 and still have to take it to Ag inspection I'm not going to be at work in time for 9 a.m. meetings. Other days orders may still go out if I receive them at 9 a.m. but I can't promise that, so it's 7 and will probably stay that way for a while.

As I received a clove seed order from Canada I found out that I can now ship to at least some countries (Canada is one of them) by first class mail from the USPS website, with the customs form and a tracking number, no more having to go to the post office for that.
As I go along I will add shipping to Canada, and probably some other countries to my on-line shops, not just Etsy which has allowed first class international mailing labels for a while already.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Tsume, aka Zoomie or Mr. Flufftail was almost 12. He passed away last week Wednesday (the 23rd) in the very early morning at our veterinarian's where he spent his last few days. He was stumbling and listing to one side the previous week Monday, but being the outdoorsy cat he was, when he needed to go out he needed to go out - and you'd hear it loud and clear. I suspected that it wasn't a good thing when he didn't show up for breakfast that Tuesday morning, but he came home briefly in the afternoon when I went to check, only to disappear again. When he didn't come home the next few days we didn't expect to see him again, but there he was in the walkway, finally on Saturday. I called the vet and took him there, and was told right away that this wasn't a case of Pedialyte with a syringe, he needed IV fluids, and antibiotics for his ear infection, the only thing they found wrong with him, and which of course had caused his stumbling and listing to one side, so we left him there for the weekend. We were updated twice on Monday and he appeared to be getting better, but relapsed Tuesday. I went to see him as soon as I could get a break from work and saw him deteriorate during the hour I was there. Norman went a little bit later and told me he had deteriorated more. We decided that night that we were going to take him home Wednesday so that he could pass away in his normal surroundings with his normal humans and co-cats but he didn't live that long. Dr. Alan called early Wednesday morning to let us know that Tsume had passed away. Thank you Dr. Alan and staff for all you did!

It took until now until I was able to write this down. I was the one who found Tsume, in the bushes on the corner by the Sack&Save parking lot Downtown, when he was a tiny kitten, almost 12 years ago, when his body wasn't much bigger around than his tail.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The clove seeds are coming in slowly. I emailed 3 people on the waiting list who wanted small numbers of seeds but didn't get any takers yet. I positively cannot drive to agriculture inspection and charge for only mileage (I have a full time job. I also have a side business - or 3, seeds are one of them) for fewer than 10 seeds. I put a listing for 10 seeds in my Zibbet shop, and that's about what they'll stay at. Those of you who follow my blog and are interested in more than 10 seeds, they'll happen and I will email you or contact you on the medium you used to contact me when I have them. Please keep in mind that more than half the price for 10 seeds is overhead (ag inspection and shipping). I won't list fewer than 10 seeds but I will probably list larger numbers - and may copy listings to my Artfire and Etsy shops.

Friday, October 11, 2013

I think it was Wednesday, actually. I went out in the back yard for my Wednesday morning round, pick the lilikoi from the back yard - my lilikoi get picked up on Thursdays -, do some weeding, check whether the one avocado is still on the tree (it was, I got to check again, I don't want the rodents to get it, I want it myself), and pick up whatever cloves the tree dropped (not good enough for selling but good enough for me). And there it was, a big brown clove seed with all its pulp. I don't know how soon there will be more but it looks like there will be an end to the wait that's already over a year long for some. As always, I'm not going to go strictly in order of the waiting list. Larger orders will have to wait until there is a good number of seeds coming in daily, and those who are going to have frost sooner will be notified sooner.

In other news, Team Hilo Etsy is getting a bit more active again, I ordered some new seed beads and some brass cable chain as well as some amethyst fan bead sets but neither of those have arrived yet, and work has me as busy as ever (I was going to put a smiley here but I'd have to use somebody else's script for that so: :)). I didn't make the Trash Art Show this year (haven't even looked at it yet) but I hope to be at the Hilo High School Craft Faire again, it's on Dec. 7 this year, but I haven't sent in the paperwork yet.

Still no news on tiare seeds but there are some pods getting bigger.

And an Etsy Treasury by my fellow Team Hilo Etsy team member Marsha Swanson:

Friday, August 9, 2013

Just a very short update: if the bees are doing their job there will be clove seeds some time this fall or winter, but they're still months away. I'm also waiting for a few tiare seed pods to get ripe but I don't have any of those again yet either. I'll probably post here, but definitely on Facebook when that happens.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

I'm back, have been for over a week, and we did visit with our daughter for a few days (finally publicly admitting that we went further than Kona this time :)), but I can't really say I'm caught up yet. Getting back sick and having to do some extra work at work doesn't help :)
I'm working on it ...
I am planning to order more seed beads, really this time as I'm running out of some colors, slowly getting caught up on drilling mgambo seeds, but no new tiare seeds or clove tree seeds yet.
And no pictures this time, but I hope to post some vacation pictures sooner or later.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Late notice, sorry. I'm going to be away again from the 15th (Wednesday), in the morning, so I won't be able to ship anything then, may still be able to get to Ag inspection tomorrow though, and possibly later than "before work". I'm coming back on the 29th and will try to get all orders that came in in the meantime on the 30th.
As I have been included in an Etsy Treasury again, yellow lilikoi seeds this time here it is: